PARIS — It may seem perverse, in the week when the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) posted record scores in two regional elections, to even whisper that anti-EU populism may have peaked in Europe.
Yet a series of events and votes in Italy, Britain, France, Spain, Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic suggest the tide could be turning against the anti-establishment nationalist movements that have upended politics across the Continent, leaving the barbarians howling in frustration at the gates.
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That doesn’t mean that the social and economic distress that turned many working-class, rural and poorer voters against the traditional political parties, the parliamentary system and the European Union has gone away. But the populists seem unable to secure a majority for their radical, anti-European course almost anywhere.
The most obvious case is Italy. Former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, whose far-right League Party was sharing power uneasily with the anti-establishment 5Star Movement (M5S) in Western Europe’s first populist government, thought the country was ripe for a hard-right turn and pulled the plug on the coalition in mid-August, demanding an early election.
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